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Continuity on Rhoads’ staff is a bonus

If continuity and familiarity on a coaching staff breeds success, the Iowa State football team is positioned nicely going into the fall.

The Cyclone football office gathered information on coaching staffs around the nation and six members of Coach Paul Rhoads’ initial staff are still at Iowa State. That is tied for the fifth-most in the nation for head coaches, who have been at the same school since 2009.

There must be a longevity clause for the service academies as Navy (all nine assistants have remained with Coach Ken Niumatalolo), Army (eight have stayed with Coach Rich Ellerson) and Air Force (six have been with Troy Calhoun) are towards the top of the list.

Northwestern (eight) and UCF (seven) are the other two schools with more assistants remaining from the ‘09 staff than the Cyclones.

Of the 21 Division 1A head coaches hired in 2001 (the year Rhoads came to ISU), eight are still serving those schools. Here is the number of assistants still on staff for those programs:

Army (Rich Ellerson) – 8

Iowa State (Paul Rhoads) – 6

Bowling Green (Dave Clawson) – 5

Kansas State (Bill Snyder) – 5

Mississippi State (Dan Mullen) – 5

Washington (Steve Sarkisian) – 2

Wyoming (Dave Christensen) – 2

Eastern Michigan (Ron English) – 1

Rhoads has shifted some of his coaches to different positions over the years, but he’ll be greeting Wally and Shane Burnham, Courtney Messingham, Bill Bleil, Ken Pope and Curtis Bray for the fifth consecutive fall camp in a few months.

That familiarity will be a bonus for both the staff and, most importantly, the student-athletes when camp opens this fall.